Git Alias Open Pull Request on GitHub

I want to be able to type git open-pr-github and have my browser open to the GitHub URL to create a Pull Request (PR) for my current branch on the current project I’m working on. Here is how I built this to run on my computer running macOS.

Git Alias

This alias can be added to your ~/.gitconfig file. The fastest way to add this is to run the following from the command line.

git config --global alias.open-pr-github '!f() { open "$(git ls-remote --get-url $(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote) | sed '"'"'s|git@github.com:\(.*\)$|https://github.com/\1|'"'"' | sed '"'"'s|\.git$||'"'"')/compare/$(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).merge | cut -d '/' -f 3-)?expand=1"; }; f'

Git Alias in Git Config

Instead of running the command above, you can manually add the following to your ~/.gitconfig file.

[alias]
open-pr-github = "!f() { \
    open \"$(git ls-remote --get-url $(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote) \
    | sed 's|git@github.com:\\(.*\\)$|https://github.com/\\1|' \
    | sed 's|\\.git$||'; \
    )/compare/$(\
    git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).merge | cut -d '/' -f 3- \
    )?expand=1\"; \
}; f"

The resulting alias behaves the same, the only difference is this manually added version is broken up over multiple lines for readability.

Pieces of the Puzzle

Get Current Local Branch Name

# Get current branch name
# e.g. "feat/add-open-github-pr"
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD

Get Remote Name for Current Branch

# Get remote for the current branch (e.g. "origin")
# Note: this will return nothing if the current branch is not tracking a remote branch.
# See https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Documentation/git-config.txt-branchltnamegtremote
git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote

Get Remote Branch Name Being Tracked

# Get branch name on remote local branch is tracking
# e.g. "refs/heads/feat/add-open-github-pr"
# See https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Documentation/git-config.txt-branchltnamegtmerge
git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).merge

Get Trim “refs/heads”

echo "refs/heads/feat/add-open-github-pr" | cut -d '/' -f 3-

Get Trimmed Remote Branch Name Being Tracked

# Get trimmed branch name on remote local branch is tracking
# i.e. remove the leading "refs/heads"
# e.g. "feat/add-open-github-pr"
git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).merge | cut -d '/' -f 3-

Note on all of my projects the trimmed remote branch name being tracked is the same as your local branch name (e.g. feat/add-open-github-pr), however you can track a remote branch with a different name (though this just seems like asking for trouble) so we jump through these extra hoops to ensure we have the correct remote branch name

Remote Remote URL

# Get the URL for the remote "origin"
# e.g. "git@github.com:ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" (SSH)
# e.g. "https://github.com/ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" (HTTPS)
git ls-remote --get-url origin

Note: these remote URLs come in two different formats, SSH and HTTPS

Get Remote URL Associated with the Current Branch

# Get the URL for the remote associated with the current branch
git ls-remote --get-url $(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote)

Normalize SSH style URL to HTTPS Style

Since the remote URL can be in two different formats (SSH or HTTPS), we apply a regular expression to normalize the URL to HTTPS style.

echo "git@github.com:ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" | sed 's|^.*github.com[:/]\(.*\)$|https://\1|'
echo "https://github.com/ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" | sed 's|^.*github.com[:/]\(.*\)$|https://\1|'
# both result in the same
https://github.com/ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git

Normalize Current Remote URL

# Normalize SSH style URL to HTTPS style
# (if the URL is already HTTPS style, make no changes)
git ls-remote --get-url $(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote) \
| sed 's|git@github.com:\(.*\)$|https://github.com/\1|'

Transform an HTTPS Style Remote URL to Browser URL

# Transform HTTPS URL to browser URL
# Remove .git from end of HTTPS style URL
echo "https://github.com/ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" | sed 's|\.git$||'

Transform Remote URL (SSH or HTTPS) to Browser URL

echo "git@github.com:ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" | sed 's|git@github.com:\(.*\)$|https://github.com/\1|'
echo "https://github.com/ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git" | sed 's|git@github.com:\(.*\)$|https://github.com/\1|'
# Both output the same
# https://github.com/ironcodestudio/ironcode-git-enhancements.git

Put the Pieces Together to Output the Browser URL

echo "$(git ls-remote --get-url $(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote) \
    | sed 's|git@github.com:\(.*\)$|https://github.com/\1|' \
    | sed 's|\.git$||')/compare/$(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).merge | cut -d '/' -f 3-)?expand=1"

Open Instead of Echo

open "$(git ls-remote --get-url $(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).remote) \
    | sed 's|git@github.com:\(.*\)$|https://github.com/\1|' \
    | sed 's|\.git$||')/compare/$(git config --get branch.$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD).merge | cut -d '/' -f 3-)?expand=1"

Inspired by

Inspired by this Gist by rpavolovs and the git-open project by Paul Irish.

How this Differs

The solution here differs from these other solutions in that this solution has all of the code contained within the ~/.gitconfig file.

Update to Accept Target Branch

This command has been updated to accept a <target> branch.

git open-pr-github my-branch

will now open a PR into my-branch instead of into the repo’s default branch.

See GitHub PR: Add optional target branch argument to “open-pr-github” alias.

Operating Systems other than macOS

This solution works on my Apple macOS machine.

If you are running on a Linux machine, you can try changing open to xdg-open in the script.

If you are on Windows, you can trying changing open to start.

I’ve not tested these so if you do, I’d love to hear the success or failure in the comments.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.